As the 2023-24 school year begins to wind down, teachers throughout Geneseo Community Unit School District #228 are being recognized as part of National Teacher Day (May 7) and Teacher Appreciation Week (May 6-10).
Fewer than 20 school days remain in the current year and those days will go by quickly with events like prom, all-unit concerts, elementary field days, graduation on May 19, and Memorial Day weekend.
“Our staff should feel proud of the work they and our students have done this year,” said Dr. Adam Brumbaugh, Superintendent. “Great strides have been made with our curriculum and interventions, and our students' achievement levels are going up as a result.”
Brumbaugh continued, “Our ‘final product’ is being recognized at the highest levels by the Illinois School Report Card and the US News, earning an ‘Exemplary’ rating and moving up in state and national rankings at GHS. This recognition starts with the strongest foundation at the elementary level and continues throughout the critical middle school years. Imagine where we can go once we make our systems and supports even better through the standards-based learning work our staff has been doing. The sky’s the limit!”
Brumbaugh added, “I could not imagine working for a better district, or with better people, than here in Geneseo.”
More about Teacher Appreciation Day and Teacher Appreciation Week:
People in the United States started celebrating National Teacher Day in 1953 when Eleanor Roosevelt persuaded Congress to set aside a day to recognize educators. The origins of the idea for a day are unclear. They date to the early 1940s. But some references cite the advocacy of a Wisconsin teacher and other references credit the efforts of a teacher in Arkansas for first working to establish a teacher appreciation day. One of these teachers is thought to have written to Eleanor Roosevelt, urging her to take up the cause.
It didn’t become a national day until March 7, 1980, after the National Education Association (NEA) along with its Kansas and Indiana state affiliates and the Dodge City, Kan., local chapter lobbied Congress. People continued to celebrate the day in March until 1984, when the National Parent Teacher Association designated the first full week of May as Teacher Appreciation Week. The following year, the NEA voted to make the Tuesday of that week National Teacher Day.
The NEA describes National Teacher Day as “a day of honoring teachers and recognizing the lasting contributions they make to our lives.”